Ensoniq ASR-X Pro

I found it pretty easy to use.

Some of the features are pretty dope. The effects kick ass

I have a hip hop sound card for it-nice drum kits

When I first got it I had problems. I let a homie use it and he put on stick of memory in it without telling me, so every time I hit a key the sucker would cut off on me...talk about frustration. I ended up putting it on the shelf for about 2 years...pawning it when I needed extra loot. But every since i took that stick of memory out I have not had one problem

n/a

Im selling mine for $500 bucks if anyone is interested. I love it but I dont have enough time for it since it's two year rest period I have bought the MOtif6 and the su700 so I really dont need her anymore.She's a great gal but she kinda broke my heart in the beginning so I just have to let her go.

Its easy and yall can check my page!! All songs were created using nuttin but the ars and nada else!! Mad samples and dope drums---Shit-C'mon--Gimme all of your asr's!! Ill take care of them!!
Check my page and read the responses on my page!!!
www.soundclick.com/namebrand
Sorry it wasnt as useful for yall!! Peace

V.I.N.C.

Effects are good to flip the sound and compress to a more realisti sound!

It freezes up alot and that sucks but when I give my CHRISTINE some love, She creates heat!

I give it an 8 and thats only cause of the freezing it does!

I would recommend the AsR X Pro, I have one and purchased it in 1999 for about $1,500. it came with the 16 mb, dance or urban card. It is very easy to use and was taught to me in the music store. i liked the versatility and the fact that to play it it did not need disks, the resampler and sampling with sequencer makes it almost unbeatable. On drawback is that they do not support the machine anymore and have moved to include the drum machine with a sound module. Very easy to understand and is built mainly for musicians.

The ASR X Pro is feature laden drum machine with built in professional effects, built in keyboard, 64 polophony, built in sampler and resampler, built in sequencer and very flexible. The expansion boards range from world sounds to urban rhythms to any other instrument, the only draw back is that only one card can be useed at a time so a scsi device would be handy for storing while you switch the boards. TRhe options are to many to list but there is a board which allows 8 inputs, pedals and other gizmos, it is an extermely flexible machine.

The ASR X PRO has 20 bit sound with 24 bit sampling. the instruments are arrwanged in kits and a typical drum kit will have 40 section with with 4 octaves. With the dance card the keys, horns and synths are very realistic sounding, this is not a groove box where most of the patterns are re-arranged, you have to create the rhythms, 16 tracks and seasones users use tricks with sampling and doubling up on tracks. I have had it for 4 years and I am just a novice when it comes to the technical aspects, but it is very easy and very rich sounding machine that lets you produce right out of the box.

It is very relaible but the floppy's sometimes do not work at gigs. I am in the process of upgrading to a scsi device for greater reliability.

When customer support had the product in circulation then I never had a problem, the problem now is that thewy no l.onger produce the machine and have intergrated the sound modules, proteus with the ASR X Pro to make a hybrid, like the P-7 and XL.

I wish that the machine was still able to be serviced through Ensoniq, I think it was way to overbuilt with way to many functions but to producers it was a life saver. From the standpoint of learning it is an incredible tool that is comparable of getting a post secondary training in sound production, there is just so much....

DO NOT BUY THIS MACHINE!!!!!!!!!

PADS WEAR DOWN AND GET STUCK,DO NOT BUY THIS MACHINE!!!!!!!

SOUNDS ARE CHEESY, DO NOT BUY THIS MACHINE!!!!!!!

CHRIST NO, THIS IS THE MOST UNRELIABLE PIECE OF SHIT EVER MADE! DO NOT BUY THIS MACHINE!!!!!!!

NEVER CALLED THEM, I HEAR THEY JUST GIVE YOU SOME GUYS HOME PHONE # WHO CAN'T HELP U OUT TOO MUCH.

I WISH SOMEONE WOULD HAVE STOLEN IT BEFORE I WASTED MY TIME AND MONEY ON THIS JOKE, I HAD TO TAKE IT APART TO GET THE WORN RUBBER KEYS UNSTUCK AND FOUND THAT HALF THE SPRINGS THAT ARE SUPPOSED TO BE UNDER THE PADS WERE MISSING AND THE ONE DAY I LOADED A DISK AND THE FLOPPY DRIVE STARTED SMOKING, IF YOU WANT TO THROW SOME MONEY AWAY BUY THE ENSONIQ ASRX PRO.

Like everyone else in here, I only use the preset Drums & Bass. Besides that, I sample what I need. The manual is alright. It's like an "ASR-X Pro for Dummies" book. Real easy to follow.

The pads are great. Very durable and pressure sensitive so they know how hard you are tapping. The built in effects are real good for tinkering with choppy samples, although cakewalk sonar, cubase, and protools (which you will need eventually) have all those effects and then some. The expansion is great as far as ram is concerned, but I had trouble getting a 250mb scsi zip to work. I guess I'm just a retart. So I am not able to save completed work to a disk. Once I get everything sequenced, I just put it on my PC anyway, so there is no need to save anyway.

HIP HOP!!! I'm sure it works fine for club, trance, jungle, and all that other techno crap too. DOES EVERYTHING I NEED IT TO!

I bought mine brand spankin new. I have been sure to take excellent care of it and there are a few problems. The "stop" button does not always respond (I do use it a lot, but I press others more). The "sequencer" skips when there is a lot going on, but that's only visual anyway (it does not affect the sound). AND YES, IT FREEZES!!!!! Sometimes I think I am pressing buttons too fast, but I would like to think that an expensive peice of production equipment made SOLEY for that purpose can at least do it's job as fast as I can tell it to. For this reason I make it a point to save VERY often. Besides that, for the last 3 years, EVERY time I had the urge to use it, it fired right up, and worked without hesitation.

You should really take the customer support section off for this product because there is none.

If it were lost or stolen, I would buy one used for a lot less money. All I own is this, two 1200's, and a PC with cakewalk sonar. The ASR preps the sounds, and I use sonar for the breaks.

I am really astonished by the number of people who are not pleased w/ the x pro. The presets suck overall except some of the percussion instruments. Some of the bass instruments are nice you just need to filter them.But you know its a "sampler" some samplers dont come with any sounds. I have the latest version 3.04 and really doubt if another will come out. The manuall is the good overall. Sometimes I still take look at it. The unit is easy to use its an ensoniq.

All machines have there quirks. You can get around the polyphony (32) by resampling any tracks that have a lot of notes on it. I expanded to 34mb couldnt imagine needing anymore. The pads are good but sometimes I use a midi keyboard to play melodies. I have Iomega zip 100 hooked to it and have not had any problems. The sequencer may jump if you got a lot of samples and are up to track 10. All you have to do is resample some of the stuff that you put effects on or tracks with a lot of notes. Effects are excellent! I wish it had more midi ports like the mpc 2000 but I couldnt afford the mpc.

Its a sampler. I could care less about onboard sounds. If you have Awave or Translator sounds are able to be had. I make hip hop. If you got friends who do music just sample sounds off there boards. I sampled sounds off of my boys mp7 last month.About 2mb's worth.

Only locked up 1 time. Before I expanded the memory. I do hip hop so im not concerned with gigs. I have let the x stay on for days and it does fine.

They suck.

No I wouldn buy it again if it were stolen. I would get something up to date. I have had it for 4 years now. I had an asr-10 before the x. I like the fact its so easy to use. I sample in soundforge so the screen is not an issue. If I had the loot I would have an Mpc 3000. But I work with what I can. Its not the Machine its the Man behind the Machine. I would like for them to include the 8 output as standard cause I cant find one now. I now sequence in cakewalk so a lot of the sequencing issues are dead.

Quit easy to use, when you dont get into things to much. The RAM-Kit structure is a little confusing, since the ASR X PRO always wants you to make a RAM-Kit when editing something. Multisampling? No. This is not a multisampler but a great sample playback unit for the Ensoniq library. The last software update was 3.04.

Great sample playback unit, especially with 66 MB RAM (fully expandend). The Ensoniq library is fabulous! Import of AKAI works fine with most samples, although with huge AKAI multisamples you have to correct wrong imported tones in the RAM-Kit area, which is annoying. ROM sounds quite good, dont have an expansion board installed.
Effects are best! Never heard anything comparable from a sampler. 24 bit, thats what they sound like. Especially in the mix: FANTASTIC! Very hard to programm though. I use X-Tools from Chicken Sys to program effects, which works fine.
DOS -based sound storage. Easily stored on a windows computer. You can burn your own library on CD. Great back up possibility. Edit samples with software, load them into the ASR X PRO.
Many complaints on this site about the tightness of the 16-track-sequencer: I do all MIDI recording with my computer and then record it on the ASR X PRO on 1 sequence. The ASR X PRO replays my songs without any problems. Since its only one sequence, tightness is not a problem here.
Polyphony of 32 voices is enough for me. 16 channel multitimbralitiy as well. Less is more.
Resampling: Editing samples is not up to date. Display is not graphical. Use computer software for wave editing. SCSI SMIDI doesnt work with my computer, so I swap 100 MB zips between both, which is a good compromise.
Stomper feature, never used it.

The best sonic sound I ever heard from a Synth/Sampler. I have heard all there is on the market in the past 10 years and the ASR X PRO has IMO the best sound of them all. Sounds great right from the start. Warm and punchy, very professional. AKAI sounds neutral, Emu sounds warm, Ensoniq sounds warm, clear and punchy at the same time.

People write it is bad. I only use it as a sample player and an effect unit. Sometimes I resample. I dont go into editing to much. Do not sequence. Havent had trouble so far, have the newest operating system.OS 3.04 is OK. SCSI with Iomega Zip 100 works fine. Used to freeze a lot when SCSI was not set up correctly. Needed a lot of time to find out what was wrong. Since then no problems.

They dont exist anymore. Emu is helpful, their web site has a lot of information. Many tips in the net

For me its the best regarding sonic quality. Isnt that the thing music is all about? Other than that it is not a PRO-unit. To hard to program (small display, many subpages), the sequencer is a problem and SCSI is not stable enough in many cases. For me the unit is fine, would never sell it. Have found a stable SCSI system, dont sequence, dont edit to much .No Freezing in the past few months.

easy as hell...mess with it for a few weeks, then go back and read the manual to plug in the holes...very simple layout though...perfect

mad features...not going to say anything that the rest of the people on here didn't allready...fully editable synthesizer...sequncer...effects processor...what more could you want...

umm...its a sampler...why in the world would anyone use preset sounds anyway?! there are a few nice basses and kicks you could really edit the hell out of!

I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE REST OF THESE GUYS ARE SMOKING?! this IS THE MOST RELIABLE PIECE OF GEAR I OWN...i've had it for 3.5 years...NEVER HAS IT FROZEN ON ME...NEVER HAS IT HAD ANY PROBLEMS WITH SCSI...OR LOADING, OR SAVING...its been PERFECT...at one point I HAD IT ON FOR 4 MONTHS STRAIGHT...and STILL sequenced a song without a single glitch...that's not turning it on and off at the end of the day, that's 4 months STRAIGHT...now show me any other piece of gear that'll run flawlessly for 3000 hours?!!!! I don't know, maybe some of these other guys just mistreated their machines...hehe...i bought mine as a floor model...been used and abused...but it was still solid as hell!!!

what customer support?!

hell yeah i'm keeping one of these forever!!! SEQUENCER SUCKS...i don't really use sequencing in the same way most of these guys do anyways though!!

It's easy to figure out...if you can't (RTFM)Read the fucking manual.

Sample rate and filters are incredable, if have the means expand to 34mgs, can't do much with 2. The sounds are cheezy, thats why you resample!

The pads are very handy, the aftertouch is great.

If you were giging on anything without a back up, well thats very ballzie. It's an electronic instrument, not going to be 100% perfect.
but it has froze up on me loading sounds and when formating the HD.

Tech Support, I think they were on an extended lunch break.

I bought it out of stupidity...It's a fun machine but not what i need it for. The sequencer absolutly sucks! buy for the sampler first, then a drum machine, then a sequencer. If you are serious about your music...get an E-mu 6400...you cant put a price on great music!

Very Simple and Straight forward.

Basically a studio in a Box. Great expandability. Synth, effects,and
Sampler all great. Sequencer, should be merely used as a scratch pad.
Use an external seq. for your compositions. Software or hardware based.

Sounds are all good. At first I thought the sounds actually sucked.
But the more I dived into the box, the more I appreciated the sound
editing capabilities. There are a lot of phattttt!!! sounds waiting to
be discovered in this box. And the Resampling capabilities are just the icing on the cake

I not had any of the problems other users are expierencing. like the
SCSI save problems mentioned elsewhere. It has hiccuped a couple of times during seq., but I really dont use it for seq. Im using Cubase
VST 5.0... But I admit I would have problems going into a live gig with it.

I dont think it exists. Had some sucess with, I think his name was
Eric Montgomery about 2 years ago. But thats about it. Its been kind
of invisible since the merger with EMU. Still waiting on software upgrade 4.0 hopefully soon

Once you take the time to learn this instrument i.e its strenghts and
weakness it is well worth it. If it got stolen, I would definately
replace it. Especiallly now that it can be had for around $700. For all the nay sayers I challenge u to come up with a phatter beat. Me and my ASR-X Pro w/Cubase vs You and yours